A SECOND ASCENT. 
279 
these creatures. I have questioned them many times 
and exhaustively, and they assured me the buffalo 
and koodoo were identical with those inhabiting the 
plain below. The natives’ shields were often made of 
untanned buffalo-hide, and the horns were turned into 
powder-flasks. I should further mention here that 
the elephant, at all times an excellent mountaineer 
(I have seen him on the Chella mountains in Angola 
at 8000 feet), wanders up Kilima-njaro to as great a 
height as the buffalo. I have not only seen his recent 
traces, but at a height of 13,000 feet I actually saw 
three of these animals crossing nimbly a stream-valley, 
and mounting with agility the steep slopes that rose 
above the water. At night, too, round our settlement 
we would frequently hear their loud shrill trumpeting. 
A species of hyrax 6 inhabits the slopes of Kilima-njaro 
up to 11,000 feet. It affects always the neighbour¬ 
hood of trees. During the night, in the forest, these 
creatures call loudly to one another. The young 
hyraxes, even in captivity, exhibit great power of 
modulation in their voices, and their loud cries are 
almost human in tone. 
During the greater part of October I remained in 
this lofty settlement, and spent nearly every hour of 
daylight rambling about the mountain with my collect¬ 
ing-portfolio and bird-gun. But in only two of my 
trips, as already recorded, did I reach the snow. 
Owing to the length of time involved in a climb to the 
snow-line (for the slope of the mountain was very 
gradual) I was never able to accomplish the entire 
ascent of either peak, going and returning in one day; 
and as I found it impossible to induce my shivering 
6 Hyrax Brucei, an Abyssinian form. Vide Chapter XVIII. 
“ Mammals of Kilima-njaro.” 
